PROCTORVILLE — This year’s Martin Luther King Jr., celebration at Ohio University Southern Proctorville Center will showcase its students.

That’s because the event is taking as its theme, “Building Today for Better Tomorrow.” The remembrance of the slain civil rights leader will feature speakers and a brunch starting at 10 a.m. Friday. The Proctorville Center postponed its event in order not to conflict with activities going on at the Ironton Campus earlier this week.

“I am excited because the students are invested in this,” Stephanie Burcham, center director, said. “The students are the building blocks of the future.”

Speakers for the morning will be OUS students Lettie Aiken and Julie Huron. Summer Locascio, also a student, will show a PowerPoint presentation that she created of King with excerpts from his speeches.

Also participating will be Kimberly Thomas-Colburn from Christ Temple Church in Ashland, Ky., who will sing the National Anthem and the song that became the anthem for the civil rights movement, “We Shall Overcome.”

Bishop T. Andrew Aiken, of the Greater Love Temple of Burlington, will remember the quotes of King and Pastor Dwayne Shugert, of New Hope United Methodist Church, will offer a litany of commemoration.

“This is a program where the students lead the initiative,” Burcham said. “They determined what we would be having. They are the building blocks for a new future.”

The brunch is open to the public and will be at Commons on campus.